Katie RauschMichigan State Police execute a search warrant at HydroWorld on N. West Avenue in Jackson

Michigan State Police believe a Jackson medical marijuana dispensary illegally sold the drug to people without state-issued patient cards.

This afternoon, state police and members of the Jackson Narcotics Enforcement Team raided HydroWorld, 834 N. West Ave.

“They’re trying to raid us, trying to shut us down, trying to say we are illegal when we aren’t,” said Chris Brown, an employee of the store.

Undercover JNET officers were still inside the store when Brown walked out carrying a duffel bag. He would not say what police were looking for or what they were doing. The store, he said, provides marijuana to patients and does nothing illegal.

Detective First Lt. Timothy Gill, commander of the Michigan State Police First District Drug Task Force Section, said his officers have investigated HydroWorld stores in Jackson and Lansing for several months. The investigation led to search warrants served today at three HydroWorld stores, one in Jackson and two in Lansing.

“Based upon the investigation, this business was selling marijuana to persons without patients cards and engaged in other practices in violation of law,” Gill said in a statement released today.

Around 2 p.m., officers in plain clothes were inside the store. Closed signs were on the door, and a battering ram lay inside on the floor. Papers littered the carpet.

Gill said the investigation did not target patients, only the company. No arrests have been made. The police seized evidence from the store, but Gill would not specify what was taken. No one has been named in the investigation, Gill said.

Danny Trevino opened HydroWorld in Jackson at the beginning of the year. He already had stores open in Lansing. Trevino said he signed the lease on the building only days before the city enacted a moratorium on medical marijuana dispensaries.

Trevino also started Hydro-College two years ago to teach people how to become legal and grow their own medicinal marijuana.